Shoppers grab televisions at a store in Knoxville, Tenn., minutes after it opened on Black Friday last year. / Wade Payne, AP

by Katrina Trinko, USA TODAY

by Katrina Trinko, USA TODAY

Welcome to Thanksgiving in 2012. It's the holiday where we join with family and friends to eat, give gratitude and ... buy big-screen TVs.

No longer will anxious consumers be forced to wait until 4 a.m. on Black Friday. This year, several companies, including Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart, are obligingly opening their doors Thanksgiving night, with at least a couple opening as early as 8 p.m.

If you have a family member who has been eying a new computer or another electronic device, expect to hear goodbye before there's even been a chance to whip out the pumpkin pie. This is what it has come to in our consumption-driven culture: We can't even set aside a whole day to cherish what we have without buying yet more.

Bargain hunting

In these tough economic times, I completely understand why people are looking for bargains, whether for themselves or for their loved ones' holiday gifts. But there's no reason sales can't start on Black Friday - not Thanksgiving.

The early launch is also hurting some employees. "Thanksgiving ... is one of the three days retail workers get off a year: a day most all of us spend with family we only get to see on that day," writes Target employee Casey St. Clair in a petition on Change.org asking the company to consider not opening on Thanksgiving night.

So far, St. Clair's petition has been signed by more than 330,000 people. It's simply not fair to ask minimum wage (or close to it) employees, many of whom already are regularly working weekends, to give up a rare day they can expect their loved ones will also have off.

A better movement

Contrast the early Black Friday fad with another more promising trend I've seen emerging in recent years: People listing on Facebook, in the days of November leading up to Thanksgiving, one thing they are grateful for each day. Instead of thinking about (and buying on Black Friday) more stuff, these people are savoring the blessings they already have in their lives. And that's a spirit we could use more of these days in our culture.

The American character has always been restless, driven and ambitious. Those kinds of traits drove the Pilgrims to land here; the pioneers to seek new and farther lands; and the waves of immigrants to continue to come from all over the world for a chance at the American Dream. It's what's made us a nation of hard-working and imaginative entrepreneurs.

But if we are always focused on the next purchase, we're working toward a series of ends in which we never allow ourselves to savor our achievements.

More valuable than a big-screen TV at half-price off is realizing - and appreciating - what you currently have. That's the gift everyone should give themselves Thanksgiving night.